The Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) is a historically black institution founded in 1975 to recruit and train minority and other students as physicians, biomedical scientists and public health professionals committed to the primary health care needs of the underserved. In its comparatively brief history MSM as s private medical school of small size has already distinguished itself as a leader in medical education with particular success in training minority physicians and scientists. As MSM has matured in its development and moves into the 21' century, it is prepared to provide the same dedication to excellence and leadership in research focused on health disparities ravaging minority populations as it has manifested in the areas of clinical care and education. The overall research goal of the institution's strategic plan is to maintain and strengthen a high quality research environment that fosters conducting research on diseases that disproportionately affect underserved populations. Although MSM has established a relatively robust research infrastructure for an institution of its size and age, it is anticipated that these assets will depreciate and/or become obsolete over time. A research endowment award will allow MSM and other such minority- serving institutions to establish mechanisms by which they can began building endowments and attracting private sources rather than a near total reliance on federal funding. The specific aims of this proposal are: 1) to retain existing preeminent scholars by providing a perpetual resource for support of discrete areas of investigation; 2) to recruit "magnet" investigators) who are capable of serving as Directors of research programs focused on health disparities, particularly cancer research; 3) to maintain and enhance the growth and vitality of the research enterprise by securing a continuous source of funds that will provide resources necessary to support the research infrastructure and 4) to provide support toward developing graduate programs (Ph.D. and MPH) of the highest quality that will complement MSM's various foci of research.